Reel Deal: Zombie movies are like snowflakes

(Editor's note: The Tri-City Weekly is happy to welcome back film reviewers Jeff and Brandi Soderberg after a lengthy break for a family matter -- namely the arrival of Mars Henry Soderberg, a happy and healthy future movie fan.)

"Warm Bodies" (2013)Ever noticed how snow looks like it is made up of indistinguishable ice crystals from a distance? Closer inspection, however, reveals an underlying uniqueness. The saying goes that every snowflake is one of a kind.

Zombie movies should also have an individuality once you get past the reanimated corpses dining on human flesh. To that end “Warm Bodies,” written and directed by Jonathan Levine and adapted from Isaac Marion's novel of the same name, does not disappoint.

On the surface most films about the undead seem to be rehashes of the same basic premise: the opening scenes usually depict the daily routine, which is eventually upended by an outbreak and ends up being followed by all sorts of carnage. Yet the good zombie movies distinguish themselves by straying from this formula with innovative scenarios or by rewriting the zombie mythology. Films like “28 Days Later” (2002) re-imagined zombies as moving fast, something that hadn't been seen before. “Resident Evil” (2002) created an elaborate corporate conspiracy involving biochemical weapons as the cause of the rise of the dead.

No zombie movie has gone further outside of the box than “Warm Bodies.” Remaining in the same lighthearted vein as “Shaun of the Dead” (2004) and “Zombieland” (2009) this horror comedy goes a step further and adds the element of a human-zombie love story. Of course, this makes sense since the plot is based on Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet” albeit transported from the fruitful orchards and crowded streets of Verona to the crumbling gray ruins and desolate urban wasteland of some unnamed city. Here the feuding households of Montague and Capulet have become the warring factions of the living and the dead.

Known only by the letter R, the main ghoul, played by Nicholas Hoult, is more than he appears. From the opening scene the audience hears his inner dialogue as he ambles about. In the world of “Warm Bodies” there are different levels to being undead and the recently deceased retain some thoughts and emotions beneath their stoic, decaying surfaces. Once these intermediate undead lose hope and fall into total despair, their memories fade and these semi-humans devolve into skeletal horrors by peeling off their skin. We have not seen this breaking up of the undead into groups before in a zombie movie.

Yet hope lingers on in R, and his search for connection gets more promising after he encounters and falls in love with a human survivor named Julie, played by Teresa Palmer. These actors are relative newcomers to the American screen but their chemistry allows the audience to suspend disbelief at the implausibility of the whole situation.

One of the more interesting but inadequately explored innovations is the ability of the zombies to relive the memories of their victims by consuming their brains. However, the most groundbreaking plot twist is the narration by a zombie. The film is actually told from the perspective of the zombies! This was hinted at in “I Am Legend” (2007) but never has it been such a cornerstone of a film until now.

The best comedic moments of the movie are provided by the juxtaposition of R's more complex thoughts and his outward grunting and rambling. Most of this revolves around the anxiety of young love and the awkwardness of courtship, but that provides the hilarious double meaning of R's statements to himself such as “Don't be creepy. Don't be creepy.” or “Don't stare.” when the muscles in his face are lifeless.

Another curveball from “Warm Bodies” is the existence of a cure to the plight of the undead. You'll have to see the movie to discover this miracle.

We are fans of zombie flicks. What makes them so captivating is watching the characters lose everything they had taken for granted, showing how fragile what we consider normal can be. We would have liked seeing the pandemonium of the initial spread of contagion and an explanation of the origin of the disease -- both of which were lacking in “Warm Bodies.” Of course one greasy benefit of having a brain dead narrator is that his lack of memory explains the missing back story.

Another attractive feature of zombie movies is the overt metaphors. In “Dawn of the Dead” (1978, 2004) George A. Romero uses the shopping mall setting to compare the mindless wanderings and endless hunger of the undead with consumerism. Here the metaphor seems to be about love and how the lack of it can foster a loneliness in each of us making us feel like we're trapped alone inside our own skin, just like R. The movie even ventures into satire when R imagines what the world must have been like before the zombie apocalypse. He thinks how it “Must have been nice” to be in a world where everyone interacts and is involved with each other's lives but this voice-over takes place during a flashback scene of an airport where every person, including children, have their faces pasted to a cell phone.

This has got to be the cutest zombie movie ever made. While it lacks some of our favorite components, the new directions it takes makes it interesting. Entertaining but lacking depth, this is the perfect film for the fan boy or fan girl who has seen every movie about the undead ever made and is looking for something new. The blending of categories from gory action to young romance to deadpan humor make this a good date movie.

Does it make sense? No. Is it fun? Yes. So, get the popcorn ready when this one hits the video stores and Netflix.

Rating: $$$ out of $$$$$

The Reel Deal Rating System: $ - Wait until it is on television. $$ - Worth renting but only after it hits the older movie racks. $$$ - Worth renting as a new release. $$$$ - Worth going to the theater but only at the matinee price. $$$$$ - Worth going to opening night